Does a string of hydrogen-car fueling stations along the Interstate 95 corridor sound crazy to you? It might be.
But libertarian Lumber Liquidators chairman Tom Sullivan is betting that the idea will work. The Atlantic explains in its most recent issue:
This fall he opens his first SunHydro station, in Wallingford, Connecticut. It will be powered by 30,000 square feet of rooftop solar panels and will sell hydrogen for the gas-mileage equivalent of about $5 a gallon. Sullivan, who grew up near Boston and now lives in Miami Beach, plans to expand along the East Coast?s I-95 corridor, from Miami to Maine, by building stations at his Lumber Liquidators stores?slapping solar panels on the roofs and setting up electrolyzers in the parking lots. Of course, as a moneymaking venture, this might be completely crazy. But there?s also a bullheaded logic at work here. Sullivan is hoping he?s ahead of the curve. ?I?d rather be early,? he said, ?than late.?
What?s most useful about the article is its reminder that the best ideas about replacing fossil fuels will come from innovators and entrepreneurs ? not from the government.
Instead of subsidizing alternatives that are too expensive to compete with traditional energy sources, or taxing those traditional sources to make the costly alternatives more attractive, we?d be better off as energy consumers if governments would allow people like Sullivan to do what they do best: Search for new ways to meet customers? needs at the lowest possible price. In other words, allow markets to work.
